Annoying thing #1: Or at least weird, as it still stranges me out that the U-Check machine asks me to show ID whenever I buy some DayQuil. I could understand if I was buying 100 boxes but, WTF? I'm gonna go to every store in town to buy DayQuil in order to upstock a meth lab or something one box at a time? Ridiculous.

Annoying thing #2: I'm sorry but if I order a glass of the house wine and you tell me there's a special some other kind of wine by the glass that night, I think you ought to mention at some point that the "special" glass of wine is almost double the price. grumble... grumble

Annoying thing #3: So I read this story in the N&O on Friday about how this guy had dropped $10K to bring an authentic Mummer string band to the Raleigh Xmas Parade on Saturday (#3.5, of course, should be: why is the damn Xmas Parade a week before Thanksgiving but, really, that ship has sailed so what's the point in bothering to be bothered?). If Sarah hadn't been getting over a cold we'd probably have gone down to see it in person. But we figured it'd be a better idea to stay in and watch on TV. Which we did only to be treated to, maybe 30 seconds total, most of which were taken up with shots of some toddler in the crowd and the string band's borderline offensive Speedy Gonzales mascot. Very little explanation of what Mummers are. Nothing at all about the local interest story of the Mummers fan who'd paid to bring them all the way from Philly. They did get a nice shot of the band leader doing the Mummer strut and of one of the banjo players who looked to be in his 80s. But still... Feh on WRAL. Guess I'll just have to wait until New Year's and hope the Mummer's Parade isn't rained out again.